IFMCA Nominations: Phantom Thread, The Post, and More...
Friday, February 9, 2018 at 1:43PM 
by Nathaniel R
Have you ever heard of the IFMCA? I hadn't but that stands for the International Film Music Critics Association and they're now in their 14th year. They've got 65 members (mostly from Europe, the UK and USA) and they've just announced their nominations for the film year.
Their top nominees are...
PHANTOM THREAD, music by Jonny Greenwood
THE POST, music by John Williams
THE SHAPE OF WATER, music by Alexandre Desplat
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, music by John Williams
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, music by Michael Giacchino
Which differs by two films from the Oscars race this year which preferenced Three Billboards and Dunkirk instead of IFMCA's choices of The Post and War for the Planet of the Apes... so you win some and lose some (depending on your tastes)
One of the organizations missions is to champion emerging talent. Their nominations for "Breakthrough Composer" are:
MICHAEL ABELS (music credits on both Get Out and Detroit this year)
ANNE KATHRIN DERN (a lot of credits, including The Jade Pendant, Geostorm, and various short films)
GEORGE KALLIS (music credits on The Black Prince and Call of the Void)
ALEJANDRO VIVAS (music credits on The Chessplayer)
CHRISTOPHER WILLIS (music credits on The Death of Stalin and Disney's Mickey Mouse TV series)
They don't tie this particular category's nominations to any specific credits; I added them in out of my own curiousity, to get a sense of what these 'names to watch out for' were up to as I hadn't heard of any of them as someone who isn't always up to speed on this aspect of filmmaking.
You can see the rest of their nominations (they have several more categories) here.
Reader Comments (9)
What a snooze. Even their broken down categories are full of mediocre scores by the usual suspects. Can we please only honor John Williams when he truly does something interesting?
I am the IFMCA president - thank you for noticing us!. I've been a reader of this site for many years, and I've often wondered whether you were aware of our organization and if you followed our work as part of the Oscar precursors each year. We try very hard to listen to as much music as we possibly can throughout the year, and we go out of our way to celebrate the very best music, irrespective of the quality of the film it accompanies. If there's ever anything we can do to collaborate or work together in the future, please don't hesitate to get in touch, I'd be happy to help!
The best thing about the over rated "Phantom Thread" is that gorgeous score that I wish was used in a better movie
Jon -- i was not but film scoring is one of my least knowledgeable areas. Thanks for commenting. (i'm still trying to decide on my nominees in this category so I am contemplating some of your group's choices.)
I don't understand the love for The Post's music which is, as nearly everything in the movie, pretty generic .... Good for the academy they skipped it !
Very sick of automatic Williams voting, also. Wasn't nominating him for "The Force Awakens" enough? I'm not even sure how he was eligible this time, I guess there was really that much new music. I wouldn't have known.
And automatic Zimmer voting is annoying too, but this organization steered clear of that.
The year's best scores, in my estimation:
PHANTOM THREAD
WONDERSTRUCK
COCO
GOOD TIME
A GHOST STORY
Two Williams scores is superfluous (neither one is that great), but APES is definitely an upgrade from THREE BILLBOARDS and DUNKIRK.
This looks like a fun critic's group. I liked all the different categories they had.
It reminds me a bit of the costumer's guild. Enthusiastic professionals who appreciate their craft's skills in a variety of movies, rather than just choosing from the best-reviewed movies of the year.
Glad the Oscars went with DUNKIRK, but wish they'd replaced THREE BILLBOARDS with WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES. John Williams for THE POST can stay away.